The difficulty of preventing the occurrence of bed sores in the treatment of bedridden patients is a major problem, especially in the care of long time bed patients. This is true both for hospital and--especially--for home care. A number of different methods and aids have been used to prevent bed sores and to treat them. Generally, known methods are based on the even distribution of body weight and especially on the relief of pressure at those areas of the body where the patient's bone structure normally gives rise to increased pressure, and/or on the more or less regular redistribution of such areas. Existing aids include soft special beds, water beds, and hospital beds which slowly rock the patient. The rocking bed may also provide a certain amount of massage, which at times is also desirable. A drawback and a limitation of these known devices, however, is that they for a number of reasons are difficult to use within the home care sector. For example, they are expensive, difficult to transport, difficult to install in a home, and generally require to be handled by trained personnel.
Devices of the mattress type comprising inflatable cells are also long known. Such devices are presented in SE No. 322 312, SE No. 351 130, SE No. 409 653, U.S. Pat. No. 2,859,505, U.S. Pat. No. 3,492,988, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,071. These known devices are primarily designed to be useful when a patient is to be turned from side to side, and are generally impractical as an aid within the field of home care, there to prevent bed sores and/or to provide some massaging effect.